Home » Open thread 3/25/23

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Open thread 3/25/23 — 65 Comments

  1. RE: UFOs

    It’s interesting that thinking about UFOs and the possible presence of aliens in our solar system has gotten around to giving prominence to the idea that one cost effective way for an alien civilization to investigate the presence of intelligent life in other solar systems would be to send out unmanned, robotic Von Neumann probes (self-replicating spacecraft) in all likely directions.*

    Such an unmanned robotic probe could very easily have arrived in our solar system at some time in the past, or even recently, and be virtually undetected/undetectable.

    And, so, perhaps one or more such probes are just “out there” somewhere in our solar system, or even in orbit around the Earth, observing and perhaps sending data back to it’s point of origin.

    Or, then, there is this idea–

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/government-officials-say-an-alien-mothership-is-close-to-earth/ar-AA18RIrn

    Note that the headline is not congruent with and is much more sensational than what the actual article says.

    * https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-astrobiology/article/abs/von-neumann-probes-rationale-propulsion-interstellar-transfer-timing/5202679D74645D3707248FE5D5FA0124

  2. P.S.–Ironically, assuming that some alien civilization has not discovered some way to travel faster than the speed of light, given the time scales involved in travel between distant solar systems at speeds that are likely some low fraction of the speed of light, such a Von Neumann probe might well be sending data back to a civilization that had long since fallen and ceased to exist.

  3. We had Snow on the Pines last night. Did not stick to the roads or drive though. It will melt today. This week in CO will be cold but Spring is coming, really it is. My Tulips are coming up, but nothing else. Good thing I am not a farmer because I would starve and go broke.

    All those giving high 5’s because Trump wasn’t indicted should wait awhile.

    Trump is out of control and will destroy like a Vandal during the primary season, and if he doesn’t get the nomination he will be worse. His Ego is getting in the way of good sense. (I voted for him twice, so do go calling me anti Trump)

  4. French Words to Live By

    The French phrase, “quand même,” is pronounced “kahn mehm.” It is translated literally as “when even.” It can mean:

    still
    anyway
    nevertheless
    nonetheless
    though
    even if
    even though
    yet
    anyhow
    notwithstanding
    regardless
    “all the same”

    or “no matter what”

    An American studying for his Master’s in French in France said his instructor once spent an hour in class discussing “quand même.”

    It was the personal motto of Sarah Bernhardt, the actress.

    Quand même!

  5. Death and destruction is what bragg has delivered same with gascon kramer chisholm willis et al

  6. De l’audace, encore de l’audace, et toujours de l’audace, pour encourager les autres!

  7. I’m commenting on the lacquer box in the video. It is exquisitely beautiful craftsmanship. Thank you for sharing.

  8. I’m sorry om, a man who threatens violence against a prosecutor is not fit to be president. Period. That’s regardless of whether he later sends the “right message to the right people.”

    You don’t joke around about violence against the government. It’s not something to be taken “seriously but not literally.” And it’s not a “mean tweet” or a stylistic matter.

  9. Griffen, even without the evidence to support, that article and it’s theory fits a lot of facts of the circumstance of the lockdown. It definitely has the “ring of truth” to it.

    I can see how the intelligence community might have been in a panic over the lab leak as a bioweapon, but I also do not put it past them as way to hoodwink Trump. In fact I probably prefer the latter as it’s in character with everything that has happened since.

  10. Once you are inside the bubble its very hard to get a clear perspective

  11. You can rather pretend that a terrorist group like so called antifa exists, you hire the person that raised funds for it.

  12. Sounds like the CC™ hasn’t learned anything from the Jan. 6 show trials; “violence against the government” can be very selectively enforced.

    But The Great Orange Whale must be pursued to the depths of Hell. 2023 will be a very trying year.

  13. The Great Orange Whale brings it on himself. And he’ll richly deserve whatever he gets. His followers who walk off a cliff for him will not. And he’ll probably do as much for any followers who get arrested answering his call to protest his indictment(s) as he did for those arrested over his call to protest on January 6th – that is – nothing.

    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/03/donald-trump-rip.php

  14. Eworth said, “I’m commenting on the lacquer box in the video. It is exquisitely beautiful craftsmanship.”

    The lovely box reminded me of a poem that Ezra Pound wrote in 1913– it’s only 14 words, but he’s probably thinking of an ornamented box (or perhaps a print) like the one in Neo’s video:

    “In a Station of the Metro”

    The apparition of these faces in the crowd:
    Petals on a wet, black bough.

  15. @Bauxite:man who threatens violence

    I read the quote. He made no threat. As usual, the media invents what Trump said and Trump haters uncritically repeat it.

    If tell you, Bauxite, that if you touch a hot stove you will get burned, am I threatening you with burning? No.

    If I tell you, Bauxite, that if you flash your cash in a bad part of town you will get robbed, am I threatening to rob you? No.

    If I tell you, Bauxite, that if you drive drunk you may lose your license or possibly your life, am I threatening to take your license and murder you? No.

    I have lost count of the number of times the media has invented statements for Trump that don’t match what he said, since 2015.

  16. Frederick – Go to the Powerlineblog link. Trump posted a picture of himself wielding a baseball bat next to a picture of Bragg putting his hands up. He also stated that there would be “death and destruction” if Bragg goes forward.

    Talk about a bubble.

  17. A soros prosecutor on the side of the criminals

    In star trek canon vulcan had undergone a small nuclear exchange before their time of enlightenment

  18. huxley refers to “The divine Sarah” in discussing the nuances of Quand même! For an actress of her stature, it meant something like “The show must go on!”

    PA+Cat:

    Maybe! I can’t tell. Quand même!

    My sorta-theory is that Bernhardt enjoyed all aspects of “Quand même!” It’s a bottomless notion like the famous “Fuggedaboutit” scene in “Goodfellas.”

    I like the tone of defiance in some QM nuances. Perhaps one could cobble together a self-improvement movement from QM.

    I should like to have a pennant custom-made which would read “When even!” Perhaps I will start saying so at quiet junctures socially.

    When even!

  19. For everyone talking about Trump what he delivered on the economy, foreign relations and jobs is beyond despute. It’s always style points. Things are going so good in this country we can afford to eliminate a proven performer based on style. First world problem.

  20. Rich Cook – Threatening a prosecutor is not a matter of “style points.” Oh wait, he’s not threatening the prosecutor, just letting him know what is going to happen. I get it.

  21. The Brownstone article rings true. As the author says, it can’t be proved, because the putative security meeting is still secret, and will probably remain so. Trump got rolled, or, if one wants to be less negative, inadvertently misled by security and public health “experts.”

  22. Style points dont seem to matter as they tear down every foundation of this country

  23. Bauxite got a bad case of TDS….real bad.

    Miguel –

    I still go back to the voting public. Did it to ourselves. Started in ’68 with the fruition now. You have to say the progressives/communists are persistent.

    Gone from a country where certain things weren’t even a possibility to a country promoting the mutilation of children. Progress!

  24. huxley said, “I like the tone of defiance in some QM nuances. Perhaps one could cobble together a self-improvement movement from QM. I should like to have a pennant custom-made which would read ‘When even!'”

    Mass-produce that pennant and you’ll have a ready-made market among baseball fans– of all MLB teams. You can also make the pennant with the motto in the original French for Les Capitales de Québec: https://capitalesdequebec.com/

    (Don’t ask me why Les Capitales borrowed the Pittsburgh Pirates color scheme of gold, black, and white.)

  25. @Griffin

    What “Governor Kemp of Georgia” did goes beyond pretty bad and into the despicable and beyond defense. It was bad enough to not contest the bullshit from the likes of Atlanta. Still worse to have the phone recordings “leaked” while a subordinate took pot shots at Trump. But worse is that the excerpts were maliciously cut and doctored to make Trump look bad while Kemp stayed silent and smug until the full phone call record leaked and largely exonerated Trump.

    I would call Kemp a snake but snakes have healing properties when properly used and can make nice pets. Kemp is just scum and I do not fault Trump for taking issue with him, though like in most cases Trump could have done better.

    And in light of that I am inclined to be very suspicious of “accounts” of Trump lashing out at Kemp before that since they had a decent working relationship. And I find it suspicious the account paints Trump as a lockdown Crusader just as lockdowns are becoming indefensible and the left is about to try and pivot to blame COVIDIocy on Trump even beyond what part of it he legitimate is to blame for.

  26. Kemp was abetting a crime i give him props for opening up but everything that has happened in the last two years is partially his fault

  27. Yeah, must not threaten prosecutors – please explain how what is happening to the Jan 6 protesters is American prosecutorial justice?! Are you going to wait until they’ve rounded up thousands of us, or millions?

    That’s the game they want to play: rely on us being civil, until it doesn’t matter whether we’re civil or not.

  28. Pretty scary stuff as feminist commentator Posie Parker (real name Kellie Jay Keen) visited New Zealand this week and was under extreme attack from trans activists (mostly men as you can hear in the video at the link). This was after she previously spoke in Australia and faced similar attack.

    Misogyny on display.

    https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1639751086872596481

    Keen is no right winger either she is your JK Rowling style TERF but no matter. Scary stuff.

    https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1639612603302395905

  29. Griffin:

    She has been quite active opposing the trans mafia in Great Britain for many years actually, but you see, the trans mafia is a threatened minority; a minority that erases women and girls. Misogyny – the actual meaning of “trans.”

  30. om,

    Yep, there are plenty of interviews on YouTube with her on things like Triggernometry and spiked.

    The UK seems to have a lot more feminists speaking out on this. Not only Keen and Rowling but also Helen Joyce, Kathleen Stock and Rosie Kay.

    Most of these are what we used to call ‘liberals’ but are very correct on this topic.

  31. That lacquer work is great to see. I was in tears at times watching that process.
    I hope to make it to Korea, at which time finding art like this will have to be on the agenda, I think. I wonder what the differences between Korean and Japanese lacquer practices are.

  32. BLM!
    So pay up!!
    (And you were wondering why all those woke/ESG/DEI banks are, somehow, going bust?)
    It’s an ingenious “Biden” brilliantly-concealed reparations scheme!!
    “Pay to play” at its finest! (And—better yet—ye’ don’t have to pass no laws, workarounds or EOs!!)
    With the American taxpayer picking up the tab…with higher taxes and higher prices (not to mention reduced quality of life—Portland OR? Chicago? N.O? LA? NY? anybody?
    As I said, INGENIOUS! BRILLIANT!! (Of course, one would expect no less…)
    “Black Lives Matter Activists Executed A Shocking $83 Billion Shakedown Of American Corporations”—
    https://blazingcatfur.ca/2023/03/26/black-lives-matter-activists-executed-a-shocking-83-billion-shakedown-of-american-corporations/
    File under: Te DEI faw…

  33. @ huxley > Saved this for you!

    Rob Words:
    How to translate French words WITHOUT KNOWING FRENCH (3 clever tricks)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BGaA3PC9tQ

    But he doesn’t do “quand même.”

    I really enjoy his posts about language history and peculiarities, mostly English but wide-ranging.

  34. “Black Lives Matter Activists Executed A Shocking $83 Billion Shakedown Of American Corporations”—
    ==
    Again, this is not a credible calculation.

  35. Commie regime in honduras (zelayas wife) facilitated by the predecessors drug connection

  36. the back story, is taiwan from the 70s probably to the 00s, trained latin american forces, in nearly equal number to us and french programs,
    do we have any allies, maybe uruguay and guatemala maybe el salvador, although buketele rightly has the gimlet eye, toward shambling

  37. Do you dare? July 1st in Belarussia, formerly known as Belarus, is where Putin will builhis facilities for Russian nukes (VOA)sd.

    Not that Putin has been threatening to nuke any and all for more than a year. But you knew that?

    Depleted uranium anti tank rounds (APFSDS made from
    depleted uranium instead of tungsten) carry no explosive, but you know that? The A10 30 mm rotary cannon fires DU armor piercing rounds too, but you knew that too?

    Some folks jump and quake at Vlad’s beck and call. But you don’t?

  38. as opposed to the crt obsessed members of the strategic air command, or mr brinton, they make putin, collapse… in a fit of laughter, btw the times revealed the restocking of our arsenal will take much longer than we expected,

    61 years ago, kruschev, the good mudzik, put intermediate weapons in cuba, as he had promised in 1960, but kennedy’s pathetic performance in vienna, the previous year, made him up the time table,

  39. Open Thread Sunday Russo-Ukraine War, Part II:

    Attrition & the winter war in Ukraine – Casualties, force quality and force generation – Perun

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRboVa5zyUk

    Perun’s timestamps for the topics discussed in the program:

    Timestamps:
    00:00:00 — Attrition & the winter war in Ukraine
    00:01:05 — WHAT AM I TALKING ABOUT?
    00:02:09 — CASUALTIES & ATTRITION
    00:04:22 — the real drivers of losses
    00:06:59 — historical deviation or return to mean?
    00:08:10 — ESTIMATING CASUALTIES
    00:11:40 — mixed methods
    00:15:01 — illustrating the point: Russian estimates
    00:19:54 — THE COST OF THE WINTER FIGHTING
    00:23:17 — UKRAINIAN ACTIONS & RESPONSES
    00:27:23 — RUSSIAN ACTIONS & RESPONSE
    00:33:13 — OBSERVATIONS & ENDURANCE
    00:37:57 — EQUIPMENT LOSSES
    00:38:05 — combat loss claims
    00:42:14 — visually confirmed loss data
    00:43:34 — what it shows?
    00:45:29 — DEPRECIATION & CONSUMPTION
    00:45:39 — attrition is more than just combat losses
    00:48:50 — scale drives consumption
    00:54:04 — the capacity & readiness problem
    00:57:33 — Indian evidence?
    00:58:40 — DEALING WITH THE EQUIPMENT CHALLENGE
    00:58:47 — the Russian approach & the T-54 thing
    01:03:19 — Ukraine’s foreign lifelines and trophy systems
    01:07:47 — estimating endurance
    01:08:39 — CONCLUSIONS
    01:09:58 — CHANNEL UPDATE

  40. Banned:

    Bought any Gazprom stock lately, or pipeline futures?

    Anyone who bought Vlad’s spin, took a bath. But time will tell, and wounds all heels.

  41. Banned:

    Just for you, posted it earlier in the wrong thread:

    Putin’s Announcement That Russia Will Store Nuclear Weapons in Belarus Shows How Stupid He Thinks You Are

    https://redstate.com/streiff/2023/03/26/putins-announcement-that-russia-will-store-nuclear-weapons-in-belarus-shows-how-stupid-he-thinks-you-are-n721811

    “In short, this is just a propaganda move designed to generate fear of nuclear war among the profoundly stupid. The people excited about this announcement are just showing they haven’t followed anything going on between Russia and Belarus until Saturday. If Putin can mobilize enough watermelons to stop the transfer of DU tank ammunition, he wins. If he can’t, he’s just doing what he told the world he was going to do last June.”

  42. @ om > Fans of Cdr Salamander have probably already seen this, but I want to post it as an example of the systemic bias in our left-wing cancel culture’s Censorship-Industrial Complex.

    …I have been posting in parallel over at substack for the last few years.

    I did that for a few reasons. Mostly because of the coding, NMCI, facebook and other location may block blogspot as it can seem as if it is SPAM. Bad on blogspot, irritating to readers. Because substack is a “cleaner” code, no one has that problem…yet.

    Anyway, blogspot is owned by google and the last few weeks they have been pulling down some of my posts going back almost a decade for a variety of reasons. Many of them are because they contain pictures of … military operations where “physical violence” is taking place.

    Well, that is that happens in a military. I am appealing the deletions, but this is not a satisfactory situation for a military related blog as I would have to pretty much stop posting any picture of video of … combat. I can’t stand the prospect of some bot or busy body running through and randomly deleting posts.

    The last straw was them pulling down a post, text only, of our Declaration of Independence.

    So, and no this is not an April’s Fool joke, but starting the 1st of April, no new content will be posted here.

    All new content will be over at substack.

    I will not delete this blog. This will remain here as an archive of a time when blogspot was a freer place, as will all the older posts that google has not deleted for this arbitrary reason or another.

    https://cdrsalamander.substack.com/

  43. Banned:

    Not too hard for Bonchie to make Kinsinger into a pinata.

    Started your bunker yet?

  44. AesopFan:

    Thank you for commenting about cdrsalamander and the Alphabet thought police (Google). Time to pony up the cash for substack.

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